Over 70 years old, and he was always willing to make the trip -- whatever the trip, wherever it took him -- to talk, to testify, to tell the terrible story of the uniquely reckless scheme by international mining giants to poison the communities and wild salmon fisheries of Alaska's Bristol Bay with a gigantic copper and gold mine.

A remarkable book about Russian monks, published last year, reads like something from the middle of the 19th century. You feel transported back in time to the era of Russian faith that gave birth to Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. Yet, the non-fiction tales collected in "Everyday Saints" are entirely contemporary.

American evangelicals invaded Russia with missionaries, said the Orthodox aren't "real Christians," and attacked their friends. Now we expect Russia to be logical about these matters and do what is good for business.